Saving Souls

People who know they have a need that only God can meet are the easiest people in the world to reach, because they want God’s power. Among the people in need who came to Jesus during His earthly ministry was a Roman centurion who wanted a touch from God. This man was in need, and he knew it. Matthew 8:5–6 kjv says, And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

We Must Recognize Our Need for Jesus

Now in those days, Romans considered their rulers to be divine, and they bowed their knee to Caesar as though he was a god. The only god the centurion knew was the man who led the Roman Empire. He didn’t know the invisible God that Jesus Christ had come to reveal. He didn’t know that Jesus had come down in the form of human flesh to show us what God is like. But when his servant was at the point of death, the centurion understood that Jesus was healing people just like him, and he felt he was welcome to come to Jesus Christ! Lots of people are embarrassed to admit their needs, and they won’t turn to God. But this Roman centurion did. When he came to Christ, he did the one thing that everyone should do: he fell upon his knees and said, “Lord.” He may never have called any man lord before, except Caesar. He may never have bowed his knee to anyone except his emperor. But in the face of his need, the centurion turned from Caesar to Christ and accepted Jesus as the Master or Lord over his servant’s sickness.

The Power of Respecting God’s Authority

When the centurion told Jesus about his sick servant, Jesus answered, I will come and heal him. And I believe He’s saying it now to us, just like He said it then. I will come. I will heal you. Notice the centurion’s response. He said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it (vv. 8–9). Here was a man whose life had been trained in the iron discipline of the army, a man who knew how to give and take orders. When the centurion received an order from his commanding officer, he obeyed it. When he gave a similar order, the men under him obeyed him. So when the centurion asked Christ to heal his servant, he didn’t ask Him to come to the army barracks where the man was ill.
As he understood power and authority, a physical visit was not necessary. In effect he told Jesus, “Lord, You have authority above all authority and power above all power. Simply speak the word and the disease will leave my servant’s body, and my man shall be raised up.” The Lord marveled and answered, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel (v.10).

Expect Sickness to Yield to God’s Authority

To receive healing, we have to respect and believe in God’s authority over sickness. Let me give you an example of authority in action. If you go out in your car and drive to an intersection where there is a great deal of traffic, you may find an officer of the law there with his hand up, taking charge over the stoplight. He has the authority to tell you whether to go or stop. He can make you stop on green and go on red, if he puts his hand up. That officer has authority and he knows it! And not only does he know it, but you and I know it too, and we all act accordingly. Have you ever noticed how your foot gets real light on the gas pedal of your car when you see a policeman? When you do that, you’re recognizing his authority. And when we come to God for the healing of our bodies, we must respond the same way, yielding to His authority over sickness. You see, if disease is in your body, it’s there as an outlaw. It’s an evil thing. It’s not of God. But God’s power can drive that outlaw disease out of your flesh. When you are seeking healing, you must come to God believing in His authority over anything in your body that’s wrong.

God Wants Us to Be Healthy

I believe God wants His people to be strong in their bodies. After all, how can you witness and work for the Lord unless you have strength in your body? How can you do your job and take care of your family if you’re sick? God wants to heal our bodies. Sickness is an outlaw, and we must come against it in faith. The centurion said, Speak the word. That became his point of contact the words of Jesus spoken in authority over the sickness. He said to Jesus, “Lord, if You’ll say the word, I’ll release my faith. I’ll believe God.”
Matthew 8:13 kjv tells us, Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour. In other words, the Lord said the word just as the centurion had asked. The centurion released his faith. And when he arrived at home, he found his servant healed just as he had asked. He enjoyed the results that come from reaching out in faith and receiving the authority Christ has over the outlaw called sickness and disease.I believe you and I can receive healing when we recognize God’s authority over sickness. Remember that His Word says He has given authority to us as believers. I encourage you to stand strong in your faith, believing as 1 John 5:4 says that our faith is the victory over what comes against us.

Just being a teenager can be a challenge, but when I was 13, I developed a severe case of cystic acne that covered my entire face and even went down my neck. These weren’t tiny breakouts; I had huge sores that bruised. My family spent so much money on doctors and medicine that I felt like the woman with the issue of blood!

The acne on my face wasn’t just ugly; it was also painful. It actually hurt to touch my face. And the pain of the acne wasn’t just physical, either. Teenagers can be cruel, and kids at school made fun of me and rejected me because of my face. I was even rejected from being a part of musical groups in school, even though I was a talented singer.

Unfortunately, rejection seemed to follow me through my early adult life when I was turned down for jobs that I was fully qualified for. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was developing a spirit of shame that would grow like a ceiling over my life and keep me from reaching the heights God had for me, and it stopped me from giving out of my heart to people and from being free and bold with my faith.

Hope for Healing Over 13 long years, I lived with disfiguring acne. But at 25, my miracle finally came. That’s when I grabbed hold of I Peter 2:24 and learned that by the stripes of Jesus Christ, I could be healed.I started confessing that Word over my life. At first, there was no change at all, but the more I confessed that Scripture, the more it penetrated my heart. And one day I heard the Holy Spirit say to me.

Soon afterward, I went to bed one night with cystic acne all over my face just like I had for the past 13 years, but when I woke up the next morning, it was completely gone! I was supernaturally delivered that day, and I’ve been healed of acne ever since.

Total Deliverance Praise the Lord, I was healed of acne! But it would be 25 more years before I would be healed of a much bigger problem than the bumps on my face—the embarrassment and self-pity I had carried with me for so long. I had lived with shame for so long that I hadn’t realized I had actually become comfortable with it. But when I started to be honest with myself, I realized I craved the attention my condition gained me from the people who loved me. I was saying with my mouth, “By the stripes of Jesus I’m healed,” but on the inside I was still embracing and nursing my pain. When I admitted this to God—and to myself I was finally able to repent and to let it go.

The day I was healed from shame was the day I heard a preacher speak about what Jesus had already done for me. Christ took my shame on the Cross and gave me His glory. What a trade! That day, God gave me a vision of myself—as He saw me—in junior high, high school, college, and my young adult years. He showed me walking around with the attitude that I was as good as everyone else, with no cloud of shame over my life. Then He delivered me completely!

Freedom Shame had been like a prison, keeping me from other people. It also kept me from doing what I was called to do and from fully experiencing joy and freedom. Now that I’m free from the bondage of shame, I can minister like I never could before.

If you’re dealing with shame, I want to encourage you right now to find your identity in God—not in what other people think of you or even what you think about yourself. Even if you feel like nobody else in the world cares for you, you can take hold of the Word of God and realize that the Lord truly loves and accepts you.

I proclaim freedom for you, just as freedom has been proclaimed for me, because God is no respecter of persons. Your shame was nailed to the Cross many, many years ago. You, too, can be free and live a glorious, abundant life without shame.